Research: Music Experience and Behaviour in Young People

    One of the findings of the University of Hertfordshire is that the MP3 Player/iPod is now the most popular device used for listening to music. This is true to me, as the iPod is a more convenient way of accessing my music. However, although i have a selected storage of music on my iPod, my computer is the place where I store all of my music. This again is true to the survey as it states that the average computer hard drive contains 4000 tracks, compared to the iPod at 2796.

    The findings show that in digital collections 50% of the music is 'free'. This isn't true for me, as i pay to download the vast majority of my music. The rest of my digital music is uploaded myself from CD format. I still buy CDs as I still would rather own a physical copy of my music, as it costs the same amount to buy the CD as it does to download it. Also, by owning a CD music is easier to share between friends. The findings show that this becoming an outdated method, with 18% of people in the survey not using CDs at all.

    The results show that 36% of people use computer streaming to listen to music daily. With this being a free and legal method of listening to music, you'd expect this figure to be much higher. However the image below shows that music ownership is still important to the consumer.

    This is true to me too, as i would rather listen to my music without needing an internet connection. There is also still a feeling of owning music, the same way that most people would rather own a book than borrow it from a library.